Tourist restrictions lifted during Qingming Festival

With the Qingming Festival around the corner, the Palace Museum has announced it will stay open during all three days of the holiday, even foregoing its usual Monday closure. The Forbidden City will also lift the visitor quota, allowing for more people to enjoy its majestic beauty during this holiday.

In January 2014, the Palace Museum began a new policy, closing its doors to the public every Monday to conduct security checks, maintenance of the cultural relics, and staff training. But the policy also called for the museum to stay open on public holidays and Mondays during the summer vacation from July to August.

So in line with the policy’s guidelines, during this year’s Qingming Festival, which lasts from April 4 to April 6, the Palace Museum will be open to the public on all three days of the holiday.

The museum will also not set a limit on the number of daily visitors during the festival period. According to the January 2014 policy, no more than 80,000 visitors per day are typically allowed.

To ensure the safety of guests, the museum has suggested booking tickets online in advance and avoiding peak hours.

In an additional effort to improve visitors’ experiences, microphones with electronic amplifiers, often enthusiastically used by the museum’s throngs of commercial tour guides, have been banned from April 1.